merotopia

MEROTOPIA. The merotope is a “part of a place” and in ecology describes the smallest unit of a biotope - for example a tree trunk - that can be inhabited by an organism. Such reduced habitats also exist in artificial forms as terrariums or palm houses with well-tended plants and animals. They are imitations of nature and appropriations by humans. In the history of poetics and art, the principle of imitation/ imitatio of nature is called mimesis and describes the aesthetic interpretation or the representation of reality. However, the mimetic ability to 'do something similar' must also be thought in the context of social life, since it affects almost every human action, thought and imagination. In her multimedia installation MEROTOPIA, Johanna Binder reflects on the relationship between humans and nature and the view on art. She appropriates the gallery space and stages it as a kind of terrarium, a curated living space for unknown residents. From the outside, the passers-by see a scenario through the glass panes that may seem familiar to them as a place for art and yet is alien. As you walk through the interior, the perspective changes and the visitors themselves become observerd in a vivarium. The view from the outside is an important coordinate in the artist's work. Binder is interested in the seemingly insoluble paradox of research and within that excluding the own predisposition. The danger is to impose one's own in others - like the terrarium, which is created after an imagination of naturalness. If existing hierarchies, structures and systems are unknown, the view focuses on external appearances, surfaces and details. Binder transfers this deconstructing and isolating approach into her paintings and graphics by picking out individual details and shapes, letting rasters and lines fall apart, perforating canvases, piercing papers and breaking up number rhythms. Do organic tumors have an internal order and hierarchy that we cannot measure with our measuring instruments? Which categories can be used to create artificial realities that are 'viable'? These explorations express themselves in Binder's process-oriented way of working, as do the considerations of logic and intuition, the reflection on an artificial and a natural order of things. For the artist, an important starting point for the conception of MEROTOPIA was how people deal with nature as a metaphor for the relationship to other forms of society and cultures. The ideas of the western world of nature and landscape are shaped by the romanticism and the utopia of the union of human and nature. It is presented as a beautiful, idyllic or dramatically unleashed dream space, a retreat from society. With MEROTOPIA, Binder contrasts this understanding with a more realistic one that negotiates the empowerment and control of other habitats. It prompts us to look closely, to change our perspective and to see our own world through the eyes of a foreign world. Text: Marijana Schneider